Daily Republican., 1887-01-01

In June. fs7o. I hapded IN. c.yd :

uOr manager ~ bTOooWey ana Ninth
street. and asked 10 see Mr.. A. T.
Stewart. He had not arrived; and Mr..
Brown, putting the card In his pocket,
advised me 70 spend the interval la in
speeding the different floors, and that
he would tell me when Mr.. Stewart
came In. Some hours after, ! saw a
msn entering from the street, tall,
grave, exceedingly neat in his dress,
pale and light complexion and hair,
who by his quick glance and keen, in
tent look into every part Of the place,
made up my mind was the great mer-
chant. He greeted me most cordially
when introduced myself and men
toned the card In his managers
pocket. And when ! told him that
the lady, who was often at his store,
had advised me TO see 1t. but that
had preferred to see the store keeper,
he laughed and told me that he was de-
signed for my profession; that what
Greek and Latin he knew was for that
purpose; that his early manhood had
no other end In view; but that an old
uncle had told him that "call" was
necessary, and had described 1t In such
q way that he recognized no such thing
and felt driven to the choice of the
humber and less interesting work Of a
professional school teacher This II
was that brought him TO the States.
His merchants life was an after
thought. And not from him OF the
time, but from another merchant,
learned how this came. He had O
small pit;ance above his expenses. He
lent il to a passenger. That young
man, whom he had known in Ireland,
was to be merchant Stewards loan
Of SIS helped to set him up. And, in
a small shop Of the city Of that day he
found he was about 70 fail, and per-
suaded his young comrade to quit his
school teaching and take the shop, as
the only means of making his money.
II was in this way, so my friend told
me, that Stewart made the discovery
Of his gift as born merchant.
had talked but a moment in the
crowd with Mr.. Stewart, and held out
my hand, telling him l knew how
was trespassing, when he drew me of
to a corner, telling me he had plenty
OF tin,e; and when | expressed my
amazement at such a speech. in the
very crowd of the morning, he said
that one ofh principles was to leave
himself no work or Office In the whole
business. Said he: POSITIVELY every
thing to be done has somebody else TO
do 1t besides myself in the whole up
town and down town and out of town
undertakings. That is the very
bridge" said he that spans the river.
In any other way would be crushed.
l get enough to do casually. l come
into either place, and can hear al.
most as in an old mill whether any.
thing is going wrong. But" said he,
"for any moments like these, In which
i don't care to watch, everything is
going on, and somebody must be de-
linquent if | could not for whole
morning stay at my huIsc. without
coming near either store ~ Rll."
"Well now" said |, Mr. Stewart,
vii you are going to WASTE ? hour ON
me, add to your kinda's' Ivy letting
me decide how it shall tc employed.
Do tell me by the best lights you pos
sess what, in your opinion, il the Sc
cret of this enormous business d"
why" said he, you have asked
the very question Of question: have
often beaten my head over that my
self. | hardly know.
ut is not because l am the best
merchant. have men in my employ
from whom get points. and who, in
general commerce, have decided
genius, in fact, wonderful sagacity-
neither of which things to the same
extent did ever possess.
''lt ie not because | give great bar
gains. You can go about this city.
and in broken houses and in casual
chances get as good and cheaper goods
as compared with any possess. In
fact, l offer no cheap goods. | get a
fair and sometimes full profit on all
that l expose.
"Nor is 1t because am industrious
l know men who work harder than /
do. There is, perhaps, a form of in
dustrv which is extreme, and l NAV
have that. do not know any one
who denies himself as much as I.
There may be something there. l
know of no man in the city who has
made as much who INDUCES himself
in IL as little, and sticks to his desk as
closely. But still, that would not build
all this.
1.-THE only secret l know, and that
is the only one can bring forward, is |
that l started with the idea of becom- |
ing professionally and actually other |
peoples merchant. / saw lawyers and |
doctors tower up by making themselves
precious to those they worked for. 1t
was my favorite idea that this was the
secret for the merchant. Meaning To
embark upon what should last a life
time, dismissed the idea of gaining
upon certain stocks, and turning over,
for the moment, speculative merchan-
disc, kept steadily in eye comfort
and freedom from disappointment for
substantial purchases. Hence certain
rules. l swore by the zone price
Ladies who come in their cushioned
carriages don't want to be ievered by
The idea of beating down. Again,
perfect goods! l bought nothing of
any damage. cheapened nothing
because it was not altogether right. l
lid not trust to telling people thing
mad any deficiency. My telling them
hey would forget l kept no such
hings. And SO you understand how
n third of a century people got to
'uying OF me with the luxury of an
asy mind
Il allowed no deceit. A youth who
would misrepresent I would turn
way. l forbade ladies to be allowed
o deceive each other, in talking of my
,oods. and statesmen were ordered TO
orrect buyers who were standing by
he goods, who said they would wash,
Or example, they would not.
HYOn have no idea what com fort | J